The Useful Duck!

Contribute to my Vacation, please...

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Planted a record setting 35 acres today. Well, I think I did plant 10 acres once before. Not one of my better days. Listened to talk radio. Looking forward to that $4 gasoline that we will have to have to force people to buy "green" energy. Looks like the folks who where the worst polluters will reap the cash rewards of the "green" revoloution. It is just a big whopping scam. $%^&ing Algore and Company.Planted into pretty wet ground. The seed was covered so I kept going. The mud built up enough on the drill drive wheel that the drill speed indicated 5.6 mph and the GPS showed 6.4 mph. Had to adjust seed rate to compensate. Planted Montezuma oats, 140lbs per acre, no fertilizer.At the end of the field was a 40 foot drop to Mill Creek. No fence, no hedgerow. Made me kind of nervous planting up to the edge.Plus, I kept going to sleep. Ran out of coffee half way thought the morning. Figured I'd wake up tumbling down the hill.Also have a photo of the repair I did on the choke cable on my Minneapolis-Moline Z. The choke cable was stuck and I used a little too much force breaking it loose. I broke the old bakelite knob. Didn't have another cable to I used JB weld to glue it back together. JB weld is really a great product.I also put a new wiring harness and new amp and temp guages in the Z. Have three flat-faced headlights but I'm keeping it six volt. Need to find connectors for the wire to the lights. It is a funny bayonet styled connector. Unfortuantly I have no photo.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Perhaps it is not fair to post in two places at one. I tried the NewAgTalk forums but didn't get much of a response. Perhaps some of the faithful former Daily Strumpet readers still check this spot and could add to the discussion.Several years ago I somehow signed up for a free NewsMax newsletter. The free magazine subscription expired but I still get these important updates on the up-coming end of the world or the collapse of the world financial system. Now they are congratulating themselves on predicting the collapse of the US financial system and have moved on to predicting lawlessness, mayhem, and detention centers. It is kind of like the old line of if you fire the shotgun often enough you may in fact hit a duck. Not sure that directly applies to Mr. Lee Bellinger who personally sent me the email...

Or, I find out in my Wellness Report email, that I need more iodine, should or should not eat more red meat, drink some beer, sometimes coffee is good for me, and terrorists may attack.At the end of each of these updates is an offer for a free report which will keep me from getting alzheimers (don't even know how to spell it) or improve my prostate health, and tell me what foods to eat to build up my supply of iodine.Now I am really curious. This whole iodine thing has been driving me nuts. I tried to buy iodine at the local feed store but now I am on a list of "iodine buyers." Fortunantly I did not attempt to buy starting fluid or battery acid at the same time or I would be eldgibile for status as a meth manufacturer.

Now today, again I got an email with the link to this "survival guide."

I really thought I was just going to figure out this iodine thing when I find out that I need to do something important and simple to avoid being on a list of people sent to detention centers. Plus, there are like 8 normal house hold items that I can stock up on which will be better than having gold! I know toilet paper is on the list as I once toured Europe and I've been to Costa Rica twice. Some countries do not understand that 20 grit sandpaper is for finishing cars not wiping ones arse. In case of emergency I always try to make sure the wife has a case of DOUBLE ply scented softies. But what are the other seven things?Now, I realize this whole thing could be real. I've looked at these websites:Here is the one where everything goes to heck in Argentina and this is the site that really depressed me. But this site is the most useful. If it rains really hard I look here.

I'm kind of dipping into the ammo stash that I built up for the Y2K crisis and I'm kind of broke right now. But I'd like to be prepared for what ever should happen.

Still I just can't stand to give this guy $45 for his magazine and free book. I just figure the book is probably one of books with 14 point type and large amounts of white space that looks like a powerpoint presentation and has really obvious info like, "don't drink sewer water, if attacked by a mob run really fast, or don't go looking for food in areas prone to mob violence- like Northeast Portland."

Plus, the guy is making money off the proposed end of the world and it bugs me. I did a search for his book and they guy has been posting all over the place. I did not find it on ebay. Probably violates eBay's selling rules or something.

So if anyone can tell me 1. What to do about my iodine deficiency. 2. What eight household items will be worth more than gold 3. what to do about my spelling problem (that's just a bonus) I would be very happy.

Was thinking about this a little more today.All this terrible stuff could really happen. My uncle got out of Germany between the two world wars. I remember him talking about Germany in the 1930's. Of course no one in today's world learned the important lesson from the Germans. We hear all about racism and how we don't understand other people but that is not the point. There were two very important issues that we don't learn about today. 1. The people in Germany were just like us. Everyday sorts of people. 2. The Racism was not the issue. The issue was that the people accepted and embraced the propaganda-which came from their government and their chosen sources of information.That is what I think is frightening.Regardless of the impending end of the world. Everyone should have an emergency kit. I read that on the FEMA website. Don't need no stinking $45 book for that. They did leave out the ammo however...

Sunday, March 29, 2009

It was a beautiful day. Woke up to birds singing and the sun shining. And my sister-in-law's silly dog barking at imaginary monsters. Of course if there was to be a person walking by who was trying to steal hubcaps the stupid dog would hide. I really dislike insecure dogs. He barks at me if I wear a hat. He runs and hides if I stomp my feet to clean the mud off them. Of course then, five minutes later he is trying to get into the house or following 6" behind me wanting to be petted.Sis-in-law brought daughter back from visit to her Aunt in Eugene. (One of wife's other sisters)Daughter came back tired and with a bad attitude. Sis-in-law brought stupid dog.Yesterday it rained. It really poured. It is a good thing I got my fields planted.I went after tractor yesterday morning. Moved it home 15 miles in the rain. I really hate doing that. The tractor and drill take up a lot of space on the highway. Plus, I can't see behind me as the liquid tank is in the way.Took daughter with me. Had to have a talk about being nice to people. I told her she doesn't need to let people know she thinks they are stupid. Especially her mother. Kids must be polite. Using a tone of voice or a smart comment to let someone know you think what they are asking of you is dumb does not help you in anyway. If someone is dumb do you really think that you telling them that they are dumb will make them smarter? Just do what you are told, keep your feelings to your self, and get on with what you need to do. Get it over with... Plus, if you pick a fight with your mother, even if you are sure you are in the right, your father will have to side with your mother if you are being rude. Your father does not want to get involved in these sorts of arguments and he will not be happy... She said she understood.She didn't want to ride home with me in the tractor. She rode with Bill in the pickup.We went to the Amity Cafe. I think it is called Ashe's Cafe, but I can't remember why. The owners name is Sharon and her last name is not Ash.Bill and I worked on my Minn-Mo "Z" put wiring harness on it. Need to find the old style bullet connectors for the lights. Couple of the lights actually work.Then we drove around and looked for Nutria's. Saw one and took a couple shots at it. Missed. Have a stupid TAPCO plastic stock for my 10-22. It has a telescoping stock like a AR-15. Thought it would be pretty handy to carry in tractor. Of course it was designed by gun nuts for form not function and the cheek rest is too high to use the standard sights. It would have been so easy to make a really nice solid little stock. But no, it had to look like an AR-15. It's a 10-22, one of the easyist guns to shoot ever made. I was able to pay $65 for a stock to make my gun unusable. Great...

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Spring is here! I worked till almost midnight. I've been trying to beat the rain with my planting. I have been taking on just about anything that comes my way as I'm pretty much hurting for cash. I just finished a 55 acre job. I did 35 acres yesterday afternoon and was home by 7 p.m.The rest of the job took me from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. It was a series of 4 acre fields. The narrow wedges made when center pivots intersect. Pie shaped wedges take the longest and use up the most acres of any sort of field.While working on the small fields I ran into a neighbor who I have planted for before. He had a ten acre section on the river bottom where I had planted yesterday. As I was eventually ending up a few miles down river I agreed to plant for him. I thought I could just skirt the edges of the neighbor's fields and thus avoid driving down the highway.That was not the case. I had to fill with fertilizer out of the first farmers tank as he got a little extra and decided to sell it to the second farmer. Of course I was able to first totally overfill the tank blowing liquid fertilizer all over the drill and some on me. Then for the final fillup I couldn't get the pump on the tank to start so I had to pump the tank empty with the centrifugal pump on the drill. I just barely got my 200 gallons.The 10 acre field ended up being 25 acres. I planted in between blocks of harvested trees in a nursery, a 10 acre wheat field with think stubble above my knees, and 2 more sections of nursery ground. I wish I had a photo of my GPS screen. It was a serpentine course that is for sure.I had to completely rely on the GPS as it soon got dark on me. I also used my foam marker just to keep the GPS honest. The fields were just big enough and square enough to make pretty good time and I finished 25 acres by 11:30 p.m.I will have to come back and look at it after the wheat sprouts. May be some interesting patterns. Too many trees cause my older antenna to loose satellites. This makes the little tractor on the screen jump all over the place. I also seemed to be off a little on one side when I would go around the field clockwise. Not sure what that was. Generally I could see enough of the drill track to know I was on course. The GPS was still essential as the GPS got me close enough to know that the mark was the drill track and not some random mark in the stubble.Problem seems to be that folks who have spent $2400 on a Raven Invisio have the same problems as I do with my under $1,000 setup. Plus, I have been forced to learn a lot more about GPS so I can solve my on problems.Pretty amazing to think that my dad used to farm with horses.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Yesterday I was pretty interested in Brideshead Revisited. I think it was mostly likely because I think Hayley Atwell is beautiful. Today I don't care all that much. It was an interesting movie. Basically, this is how it went. People screwed up their lives by not living true to their beliefs. They wasted their time in sensuality and materialism. In the end they found abslolution and in a sense, a peace with God. This is good because most modern literature seems to stress that life is meaningless except some form of personal fufilment.I found the movie interesting because I have been in a bit of a funk. Not very spiritually fufilled so to speak. Also, I've been having employee problems.My faithful employee is not so faithful. He has a lot of personal problems. He tends not to show up for work. When questioned he says he is having family problems. The thing is I would give him all the time off that he needs all he has to do is ask. It would be a lot easier to give him time off however, if he had not told me one Friday afternoon in December, "I'll see you Monday." Then didn't seem him until Feburary when he worked four days and then said, "I'll see you Monday."The problem is that we as humans are compelled to self destruct. Especially if you turn your back on your spiritual belief system.But that is beside the point.I upgraded my GPS.Now that is a personal triumph.I bought a Raven 210 on ebay a while back. I have been having problems with satellite drift and trees making the little tractor on the FarmerGPS screen to jump all over the place.The Raven 210 was very cheap and we all know that if something is to good to be true it probably is. So I did a search for the identity of the new west coast GPS satellite used for differential correction. I found it. Then I downloaded the Raven instruction book and followed the confusing instructions for several hours. I actually figured out how to update the satellite. Now the screen says "OK" instead of "no almanac, no differential correction."Whoop! Whoop! I did it!

Monday, March 23, 2009

My wife likes costume dramas. Our daughter is with her aunt for spring break. Wife and I were going to see a movie but found we only had $25 cash between us. So we instead we bought ice cream and rented movies.Wife picked out Cadillac Records, which was good. And Brideshead revisited which was not what she expected.I've tried to read the book a couple times but the, shall we say, ponderous language, always puts me off. I just couldn't wade through the ponderous language.Oh, dear the movies over. I have to go to work.Perhaps more on this subject later...

Sunday, March 22, 2009

I’ve been working in the mud again. I planted for two people last week. First I finished up the field I had been working on before the rain. It is in the Perrydale area. Really pretty country. (see photos in previous post) It is surrounded by low hills with a view of the coast range to the west. There was still snow on the lower elevations when I was planting. Again it was pretty damp conditions. I was planting Montezuma oats at around an inch deep. Ten gallons of 10-34 fertilizer per acre as a starter. Drill was cutting a groove but mostly filling it in. Some of the bare dirt was crumbling well. The first big field went well. That was the field I was working on in pervious posts.The next little field was the problem. This one was around 16 acres and was down the road from where I was loading the drill. So I loaded up completely with seed and fertilizer. That was a mistake. I didn’t make it all the way around the field before I spun out. That was partially my fault as I didn’t get the weight transferred off the front coulters back to the press wheels before the drill gauge and transport wheels started sinking. I stopped right away and didn’t let tractor spin. Farmer bought his 2-wd 1086 (with duals) and we found enough log chain to get us onto dry ground. I came right out but did leave some bad ruts.I was pretty nervous the rest of the way around the field. I quit at dark and came back the next morning when the ground was frozen.From there I moved five miles to a red clay hillside. It was completely dry. Half the field was really mellow and half was packed hard dirt. I couldn’t separate the halves so it was a challenge to maintain depth.Also ran into a problem with the seed. I had to switch to treated cayuse oats so I had to re-adjust the drill. Then as I went into the pallet of oats I noticed they felt damp. This really affected the flow rate through the drill. I was trying to get at least 120lbs per acre. The first ten acres are planted at 90, then there is some that is 140, and finally I got it right. It all averaged out correctly. It would seem that with over a million seeds per acre it should work out.Next I moved back to Amity area. Farmer wanted me to plant wheat. We had around 2 inches of rain in the week between so the ground is pretty wet.He asked me to plant the wheat above an inch deep. Hopefully 1/2” into the ground with 1/2” of loose dirt over the top. That all sounds easier than it was to actually accomplish.I almost told him I would not plant the field but after I looked at it he talked me into doing it. When I dug up a little dirt and tried to make a mudball I could almost do it but not quite. The mudball would aways fall apart in the end. Now I know that is not real scientific but it gives you an idea.

He decided against liquid fertilizer as I told him I couldn’t apply more than 10 gallons per acre. This is a bit of a lie as with the right orifice plates I can probably put 40 gallons on. But, I have a 200 gallon tank which is really heavy when full. (10-34 is I think 11lbs per gallon) When I put 20 gallons of fertilizer on then I have to fill up every 10 acres. It really cuts down my production and since none of my customers want to pay the new rate of $30 per acre I’ve decided to give everyone discounts but to set a few more restrictions on what I will do.So he applied dry fertilizer with an air spreader. This worked out great for me as I could concentrate on planting.We planted 145lbs per acre of Merrill wheat, or I think that is the name. I couldn't find any information on that spelling. It is a new disease resistant variety that I know very little about. Only that it costs $900 a ton and plants at the same weight per bushel as Tubbs. Farmer got a little upset with me that I ran a 100lbs out on the ground out of his powerbin. I noted that it was 50% dry fertilizer and that I had a new grain drill. As it was the dry that was still in the box when into the drill and caused one section of the drill to plant at a much lower rate than rest of the drill. Had to run the drill empty and clean it out. Planted at 1.4 million seed per acre average.Everything went well and I did 95 acres in two half day plantings. The seed trench walls did tend to blowout kind of bad where there was no ground cover. (I was planting into dead prennial ryegrass sod.) When I looked behind the openers it appeared that the seeds were dropping into a little slot and the narrow 2 1/2” press wheels were pushing them firmly into the soft “almost mud.” The spring tooth harrow on the back of the drill then did it’s job by pulling all the loose dirt back on top of the row. There was very little seed on top of the ground and very few open trenches. I think it may all work.Will also post some pictures…

Didn't think about the nasty monsanto orange color of the field till I was looking at the photos in Graphic Converter. The farm is near Perrydale. Beautiful area. I used to live nearby when first married. Wish I could buy a farm there. I think I'll post a couple photos before church.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

When I was a lad I thought I was so hip. Oh, we didn't call it hip back then. No that was so 60's and we made fun of hippies. I listened to "the only band that mattered" (the Clash)-of course the only song I still like is a cover... and read "Cream Magazine" and Rolling stone and Option, and the first issue of "Spin." I was so full of crap! Seems pretty funny now. Won't even discuss how I used to dress.I was looking at youtube videos while searching for a Dave Edmunds song. I found Dr. Feelgood, and Eddie and the Hotrods. Funny I heard Eddie and the Hotrods singing this song before I heard Bob Seger do it.I was friends with a tall, beautiful, and kind of strange girl who was also into music and we would hear bands in Portland every weekend. She was way out of my league but I always hoped that 1. she would either decide otherwise and 2. that hanging out with her would somehow raise my stock so as strange and beautiful girls would want to be with me.The folly of youth.The funny thing is that now I like the old bands that were singing for the fun of it. I still like Dave Edmunds, and the early Dr. Feelgood and the Hotrods. There is a story that the Sex Pistols were opening for Eddie and the Hotrods and the Sex Pistols (who were and are a bunch of posers) busted up some of the Hotrods equipment. The Hotrods were working class kids who promptly beat the stuffing out of the smarmy college boys that were the Sex Pistols.Don't really know.Music should be fun. Should be full of energy and emotion. It should be about life and love and death and whatever. It should not be full of stupid politics and the sophomoric idea of trying to change the world. People in bands should not be telling anyone how to run the world. (Which is why I hate U-2. )This music has meaning...So does this.Just my opinions.Was also wondering what happened to the YouTube videos of the Strumpet's favorite band and if they can crank up the volume on next years version of Bonaparte's retreat?And I found these guys called "Matchbox," British rockabilly!!! I have the album. I like the song "Babes in the Woods," with the lines, "stocking tops and mohicans/don't mix to good/for sure." I can't post the link as Safari crashed again and I'm going to be. Look it up yerself!

Have been having computer and internet problems. I'm sure many thousands of internet viewers were very upset at my lack of postings. Actually, I'm back to having motivational problems. Have also been trying to spend more evening and morning time with daughter.But, wife and daughter are gone this morning. Went to Aunt's for spring break. I had plans but didn't mention them as my plans often are superseeded by the need to seed. That was a bad pun. I apologize... I wanted to do two things. 1. have a movie festival at the big white barn and 2. Go to the beach. Accu-weather and the US Weather service both promised lots of rain so I did not offer an alternative plan. Does not look like rain this morning.I've been snooping on my wife's facebook page. Sometimes you end up in a different place than you thought you would... Yesterday I ate lunch with a friend and his family. His 16-year-old sister was prattling on about her boyfriends and how she liked to steal boys away from their girlfriends and how she liked money and how she was going to marry someone rich. Of course she is most likely doomed to failure, unless she makes it through college non-impregnated by some dumb-ass with a nice car and a good line of talk. Or stuck in a blue collar town with some moron develper guy who read Trumps' "The art of the Deal," and wears short pants in the middle of winter. Who knows she may break the mold, end up Anna Nicole Smith. "Small things Mama, Big things One day come," think that was the name of a Dave Edmonds song.I want to hear that one set to banjo music at the next dailystrumpet birthday party.Speaking of the Daily Strumpet the next party better not be at Aunt Elsie's garden with five old people and rain. We got to get out of this rut, kick out the jams so to speak... I'm tired of getting old and all this "oh the neighbors won't like, loud music, movies on the barn, banjo music, lack of beer, what ever..."Speaking of life not turning out like you think... My wife grew up in Eugene, OR.Now this is what she see's out her window in the morning. She really doesn't complain but sometimes I wonder what she really thinks...

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

I've really done it now. Perhaps in over my head. I was doing pretty well selling feed run through my old Minneapolis-Moline hammer mill. So, I thought, a little is good, a lot must be better. So I bought 35 ton of ground oat pellets for $100 a ton delivered and stored till June. I'm picking them up from the neighbor's in my small truck and adding molasses and my own ground triticale and wheat and reselling the stuff in 750lb bags for $240 a ton. Well, I usually knock the price down to $200 or round the weight down a little bit. Seems to be selling so far.So here's a question for Ed Winkle. The oat pellets are around 8 percent protien. The wheat/triticale should be around 11. How many lbs of ground wheat/triticale do I need to bring my protein level up to 10 percent? I did not get my State Farmer degree based on my ability to balance rations.Have sold four ton in the past couple days. This only leaves me with 31 ton to go. It is March 4th, so I basically need to sell the other 31 ton pretty fast as it is time to actually start working!

Monday, March 2, 2009

S. decided she wanted to sell her extensive Tomy rail system and buy a remote control monster truck. So I thought we would play with it one last time. I tend to get a bit carried away with my toy collections. This all started with a Thomas the Tank Engine set which I found at GoodWill for $10. Then there was another missmatched set at GoodWill for $5. Then there were some ebay purchases of which some were good and some were bad. We only paid retail for one expansion set. So in the process we ended up with pretty extensive railway system.

S. was sick and we didn't go to church. I refused to get out of bed until S. practically dragged me out. She kept coming in to check on me to see if I was feeling any better.

She had the Lincoln Log hotel already built. It is a very substantial building I might add. I started setting up the train. I started out just seeing how far the track would go and just having a simple circle at each end to get the train back. Then construction started on what S. dubbed a "rest area" not sure exactly what it is as passengers have not been allowed off the trains. This has created a bit of a back log of lego people at the hotel train station. Construction projects down the train line require all materials to be ordered and shipped by rail. Most of these projects in the past were done with legos but Lincoln Logs were the order of the day. This proved to be a challenge but after some experimentation it was found that large logs could be taped to box cars with duct tape. Of course extra track had to be laid to accommodate additional rail traffic. More switches and sidings and so the project grew. Some problems with ingoing and outgoing train crashes when the mainline needed to be shared. It is kind of amazing how much you have to think ahead with three battery operated trains and a maze of switches. Anyway we had a good time. Here are some photos not involving dirt. Probably should enjoy our collectable toys while we can as wife's school has to come up with $70,000 in cuts. She is the art teacher. Wonder how long she will have her job, she supplies us with health insurance.

And the morons that got us into this whole crisis just keep spending money we don't have. Insanity!

Sunday, March 1, 2009

No Photos! Forgot camera. Non no-till enthusiasts will be pleased by that, after all how many photos of dirt do you really want to see?I planted 35 acres Saturday. Really nice ground, Willamette soil type. Should have pretty high fertility. I could feel the silty loam just trying to see if I could make a mud ball, trying to figure out if I could plant. I couldn't quite get the mud-ball to stick together and we have a forecast for a week of rain so I told the farmer that I'm game if you are, and away we went.I really wanted to the best job possible. Fellow is a nice guy. Has had some experience with a John Deere no-till drill but is really just learning about no-till. Ground was former wheat field with most of the stubble gone. There was quite a bit of ground cover, still fairly green, a pretty good mat of residue on top to the ground. I planted Montezuma oats at 118lbs, 10 gallons of 10-34 fert. Around 5lbs of sluggo slug bait. The planting depth was 1" to 1 1/2." I wanted to plant a little more shallow, more like 1/2"-3/4" but the ground was wet enough that the openers were just slicing a groove and not covering very well at shallow depths. I adjusted my depth a couple times. Went a little faster and a raised press wheel at the end so I probably averaged more in the "1 range. Makes me nervous to see a trench with seed sitting in the bottom.Had problems with the slugbait. I should not have put it on. It always plugs up my small seeds. I needed to go back to the drill today and cover it up so the slugbait doesn't get wet and swell up. Sometimes I think the people who engineered my Great Plains drill needed to use it a little more.But then I did try out a John Deere drill first. I was thinking about that while planting. Farmer I was planting for was trying one out. I rented the same drill and picked it up next to this field I think.The John Deere 1590 was a big letdown. I am always amazed at John Deere people. John Deere has never been a leader in agriculture, they are the sort to sit back and let the small companies do the research and then they come in with more money and make the design their own.The 1590 no-till drill is probably a good example. It looks like a great idea. It has single disk openers with rubber wheels on each side much like a corn planter. Unfortuantly the rubber wheels have a gap inside so that wet soil can pack between the wheel and the single disk. Then the seed drops a too slight an angle so if you get any moisture or a little mud at the lip of the seed boot they will and do plug up. I have even heard of plugups on steep hillsides where there is not enough angle for the seed to drop. They have the openers set on two gangs. This looks good, you can see it all, but it is a bear to work on. Plus you can't really turn for dragging everything sideways. The other problem in wet soil is if you just lift wet cold dirt up and slide the seed under it and then pack it back down with no soil disturbance it just tends to set there packed into the cold wet soil. The other drills which work the ground place loose soil over the top of the seed which then warms up faster.In the end, the trials which I have seen, the brand of drill made no difference in the bushels per acre. So I guess it is all meaning less. Unless, like myself you went from 12 acres and hour with a Great Plains, to scooping 2000lbs of wheat out of a John Deere because it was too wet for it to plant. And then spending three days with a pressure washer trying to get the piece of crap clean.But, I digress.I did 35 acres in kind of marginal conditions. It is pouring right now so I think I did the right thing. I should not worry so much about other people's fields...In other news, Spent the day playing trains and Lincoln Logs with sick daughter. We have a railway line entending from living room to dining room. It is a small house but on the other hand it is a pretty big toy rail road! Perhaps pictures will follow...